LurkNessMonster

I'm helping out a friend who has a guitarist son. He's in a local band and has started getting attention and gigs. He's a junior in high school, and would like to continue playing in college. He would prefer a college rather than a conservatory, however, in case he wants to major in something other than music. Can anyone make a suggestion? I'm guessing that most colleges are geared more toward classical. Also, does the local scene have anything to do with it? Should he just use the Rolling Stone list of good college towns? Thanks for any help.

gms5287

Umm..does he play jazz at all? Can he even read music? Chances are he won't be able to study music in a school "traditionally" if he can't read music. Also, there are no schools that offer degrees in "Rock Guitar Performance", Berklee is the closest you'll get. John Mayer went there, but he's pretty blues based..so yeah.

binx

Mick Jagger went to London School of Economics.

Sorry, I know that's not what you're after. Not my area of expertise, I'm afraid.

Jeremybeach

Berklee is the ONLY school that comes to mind. Actually wait, there's also university of denver, has jazz and commercial music programs. So, that might also be another place. Also, check out Belmont. And its connections to NAshville are great, i've heard.

don9992

Melissa Etheridge, Steve Vai, Quincy Jones, Half of Dream Theater, Donald Fagen, Natalie Maines, Joey Kramer and Brad Whitford of Aerosmith, and Bruce Hornsby all went to Berklee. Sounds like he'd be in good company there.

violadad

Besides Berklee, take a look at The New School The New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music, Belmont Major in Commercial Music - Belmont University, and College of Santa Fe Contemporary Music Program.

I cannot vouch for the strength of these programs, but Belmont has a good rep for contemporary music specifically, New School is the "parent" institution of Mannes College of Music, one of the 3 NYC conservatories (although this IS NOT a Mannes program), and College of Santa Fe is often called a hidden gem.

Berklee is by far the most well known.

Good luck.

aLfR3dd

pay attention that berklee is getting very selective in the last years......they have A LOT of applicants every year....so be sure to choose 2, 3 schools !

-Allmusic-

Berklee has gotten selective because they used to accept kids who barely know how to play instruments. Now, there are some minimum requirements, but it is still not all that competitive for kids who know how to play their instruments.

And there are also very interesting and innovative things happening at Berklee. They do have like 700 guitar students though, as I think it is the most popular instrument there.

PamelaMaeSnap

Long time lurker, first time poster.

IIRC Berklee has 1200 guitarists (by far its most popular principal instrument), 900 vocalists and then it trickles down from there. I believe drummers are third, bassists fourth and so on.

It has definitely gotten more selective than it was two years ago (approximately a 35 percent acceptance rate).

First wave of acceptance letters for the EA applicants will come out this Thursday.

From what I understand, they do not defer or wait list. You're either in or out (like "Project Runway"). If they feel you are good enough, you're in. Once the class fills up with committed students, any subsequent applicants who fit the bill will be accepted, if they wish, for January term or whenever the next openings are. I think this is where EA applicants have an advantage, though I don't think that EA applicants per se are given more weigh than RD applicants.

jazzzmomm

Also,The Hartt School of Music at the University of Hartford. It seems to me from my son's recent audition that the guitar players are split between Jazz and other contemporary forms, like Rock and Blues. At Hartt, you have a great conservatory and a liberal arts college.

jazzguitar

He wants to continue playing in college? Well good rock music happens at virtually every school I can think of so...

If he would prefer not to go conservatory route (and Berklee is similar to a straight conservatory, as it is all music), then I would say go to the place (like an academic school) that he would probably fit in the best, because chances are he'll find reasonable rock musicians anywhere (most likely, not one of the school's ensembles will be a rock band, but you never know). What I'm saying is, for most rock musicians, I don't think the school is of prime importance. Let's look at examples:

The members of "Phish" went to UVM and Goddard College
"Guster" was founded at Tufts
A lot of people from "The Offspring" went to colleges in southern cal. (USC - but not or music)
Many didn't go to college - Dave Matthews, Jimi Hendrix
"Radiohead" went to local universities in England
The lead guitarist for "Linkin Park" went to UCLA

etc...

These are just a few examples I found by searching around - but I imagine you will find that most rock guitarists didn't go to a music school (some, but not a huge majority of the very succesful people went to Berklee - mayer, dream theater, etc... but I would say if he might not want to study music as you said, Berklee is not the way to go). The scene, though, I would say is important. Local bands in Vermont are drastically different from those of southern Cal. (Phish and jam band music vs. more traditional modern rock)... So I would say he should just pick the school that seems to have the best vibe, maybe search around on myspace to find bands that are based out of a particular school, etc...

And though a teacher may be worth looking into in the area, it's not all too necessary, because I would say that rock music is one genre that can easily be self taught (and evidence of past players backs that point up).

violadad

jazzzmom- My son is a Hartt grad (BM viola performance '07), and while he confirms the strength of Hartt's Jackie Maclean Institute of Jazz he looked fairly quizzical when I mentioned contemporary/rock guitar.

Now, having said that, the classical performance and jazz performance majors are in effect 2 seperate programs, there's not alot (if any) performance faculty crossover, the instrumental performing requirements differ for the two programs as do the instrumental audition requirements. Classroom interaction is basically limited to the required music courses (history, theory, music business courses, etc.) similar to both programs.

Based on my knowledge of Hartt's programs, I'd suggest confirming the existence of a contemporary/rock component to Hartt's jazz guitar program.

There may well be one, but it was not apparent during my son's time there.

guitardad

Musician's Institute is a great place for rock guitarists. It's in L.A.

Just "google" it.

guitarist's mom

What an interesting option.... I just checked out the website, and this might be a dumb question, but is Musician's Institute more a college or a place to go and take a few classes? do you know what I mean? I'd be interested in what percentage of students are there actually earning a BM vs just sort of checking in and out for certain courses. Are the Music Theory-type classes on par with some of the more traditional music schools or is the school more focused on performance/recording, etc?

also has anyone ever heard of California Institute of the the Arts for guitarists?

Maybe I should have posted my original inquiry on this thread, but anyway, a similar discussion going on in thread above Suggestions of Colleges for music majors...........

musicamusica

I would not recommend Cal Arts for guitar. We know several successful session musicians here in Los Angeles. One went to UNT for jazz guitar, another went to Cal State Northridge and two others Eastman. If your son doesnt want to study jazz or classical guitar,I would second
the idea of finding a college or university in a city with a vibrant music scene.
(and pursue guitar studies privately.)